Teaching endotracheal intubation on the recently deceased: opinion of patients and families

This study was done to explore the views of patients and their companions concerning endotracheal intubation training on newly deceased patients and the necessity of obtaining their consent in this regard. In this cross-sectional descriptive analytical study, we used a questionnaire to collect data through structured interviews conducted by the researcher on patient discharge day. A convenient sample of over 18 year old patients hospitalized at a teaching hospital were enrolled, and after receiving patient consent, one of each patient’s companions was enrolled in the study as well. In this study, 150 of the approached patients agreed to participate (response rate = 85.0%); of those, 92 (61.3%) allowed their companions to be enrolled as well. Eighty-three persons (55.3%) in the patient group and 68 persons (73.9%) in the companion group agreed to have endotracheal intubation training on their own bodies after death. Among these consenting patients and companions, 75.9% (n = 63) and 91.2% (n = 62) believed it was necessary to acquire patient consent for this procedure. Obtaining relatives’ consent was thought to be necessary by 69.9% (n = 72) of the patients and 72.1% (n = 49) of the companions, even when there was patient prior consent. Therefore it seems that asking the patient’s consent for doing educational procedures on their dead body is crucial.